Sat-ND, 19.03.98

Sat-ND, 19.03.98

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purposes only, provided the following notice is included: Copyright
1998, Peter C Klanowski

DELAY
OF THE DAY

Spot-Stop

It should have been launched tomorrow on Ariane flight 107:
Spot-4, a French Earth observation satellite.

Yesterday, the French Space Agency (CNES) said in a statement that
"an anomaly has been detected in the back-up electric
pyrotechnic command designed to release the Pastel telescope during
its launch. Pastel is one of the instruments aboard the Spot-4
satellite."

Arianespace said it had rescheduled the launch for Monday March 23
at 10.46 p.m. local time (0146 UTC Tuesday March 24.)

Spot-4 is designed for high-resolution imaging for remote sensing
services and medium-resolution imaging for global environmental
monitoring. Prime contractor for the 2.8-tonne satellite, designed to
operate in a sun-synchronous orbit for at least five years, was
France's Matra Marconi Space.

LAUNCHES

Iridium
almost complete

The delivery of another five Iridium satellites on Sunday,
March 22, will bring the total number of operating satellites to 54
on orbit, launch contractor Boeing said in a press release.

The launch is scheduled for 10:41:54 p.m. PST, within a
five-second window necessary to place the satellites into coordinated
orbits with the other 49 satellites already in orbit. Sunday's Delta
mission will be the second this year for the Iridium System and the
eighth launch by a Boeing Delta II for Motorola, prime contractor and
manufacturer of the satellite for the Iridium System. The Iridium
System is scheduled to provide global, wireless telecommunications
later this year.

Useless fact: In 1994, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Americans ate 63.7 pounds of beef per
person, 49.5 pounds of pork, 48.2 pounds of chicken, 14.9 pounds of
fish and shellfish, 14.3 pounds of turkey, and a meagre 0.9 pounds
lamb and 0.8 pounds veal. (Aris Stathakis -- and no, I'm not going
to convert pounds to kilos at this time of night [1 pound is some
.45 kg, I guess.])

Starchaser
3 to be launched tomorrow

Steve Bennett the rocket man is back. About a year ago, he
launched a three-meter rocket which remainders unfortunately couldn't
be found (Sat-ND, 18./20.2.97.)

Bennett's latest device, called Starchaser 3, is over seven meters
tall and cost UKP70,000. To be launched tomorrow, it is expected to
fly for 34 seconds and travel some five kilometers. The vehicle is
equipped with nine computers and eleven rocket motors. In flight,
some experiments for Salford University will be conducted.

What appeared to be a strange hobby of Mr Bennett's in news
reports one year ago, actually has a bit more serious background. Mr
Bennett is the director of the space technology laboratory at the
University of Salford, England, and aims at becoming the first
amateur to put man into space.

Not just for fun, but because a U.S. company has reportedly
offered US$10 million to anyone who can rocket three people 40
kilometers into space and bring them back safely [which probably is
the harder part anyway.]

Mr Bennett was quoted as saying "I could definitely launch
people into space within five years. I have drawn the plans, and we
have even built models of the space craft, which would cost [UKP] 2.5
million to build.] Which would still leave some UKP3.5 million of the
prise money.

Useless fact: In some Eskimo tribes, it is
customary for mothers to suck the snot from their baby's noses and
spit it upon the ground.

New
government, new space program

China's indigenous rockets are not exactly known for flawless
performance, but the country has even more ambitious plans than to
launch satellites for foreign customers.

China plans to launch a manned spacecraft and land an explorer on
the moon, a leading Chinese space scientist was quoted as saying.

Ma Xingrui, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Space
Technology (CAST) said that "China is striving to make
breakthroughs in manned space flight technology at the end of this
century or the beginning of the next century."

Apart from those spectacular items, the new Chinese space
programme offers a bit of everything: developing large-capacity
communication satellites to provide direct broadcasts, mobile
communications and multi-media communications as well as improving
remote-sensing satellites.

Recoverable satellites for life science experiments and material
processing research are on the agenda, and there are also plans to
develop small and low-cost satellites to meet the requirements of
space exploration and international co-operation.

Ma was quoted as saying that China would put a priority on
satellite payload technology and sophisticate satellite platform
technology.

In related news, the Washington Times reported that the Clinton
administration has decided to offer China access to U.S. missile
technology if Beijing agrees to end exports of missiles to Iran,
Pakistan and other developing nations

The paper quoted a letter from a White House National Security
Council official that offers "expanded commercial and scientific
space cooperation with China (in limited areas) if China meets our
conditions for joining the [Missile Technology Control Regime] and
controlling its missile-related exports to Iran, Pakistan, etcetera."

SATELLITES

Kupon
failure?

Informed source were quoted as saying the satellite, Russia's
first own commercial spacecraft, may have already become "unable
to function as a result of malfunctions in one of its systems."

A spokeswomen for the Central Bank confirmed that she had
"information on some malfunctions." The bank is so far "not
ready to estimate how grave they are, and what could be the
consequences." A commission of bank and space industry
representatives will gather on Friday to discuss the situation.

Launched in November 1997 (Sat-ND, 12./13.11.97,) the [probably]
geostationary Kupon is according to the Central Bank still performing
in-flight tests and has not been put into operation yet. It was
designed to provide what probably could best be described as VSAT
data transmission services to the Central Bank and its its 1,000+
regional branches, which would be linked to an accounting centre in
Moscow so that money transfers could be made almost in real-time.

Useless fact: The first stall in a public
bathroom is least often occupied and is the cleanest.

More
Russian satellites

Other Russian companies plan to launch their own satellites,
such as gas giant Gazprom whose Yumal satellite is slated for launch
next September.

In general, satellite communication channels in Russia will
increase at least threefold by the year 2000, says Vitaly Golikov,
deputy head of the Radio, TV and Satellite Communication Board of the
State Committee for Communications and Information Technologies.

He told a recent conference that he expects 300 satellite channels
to be available in 2001, compared with 80 now. It seems that the
increasing number of Internet users will also the fuel the growth of
satellite-based services [cable modems and stuff may be fine, but
just try to provide that giant country with a decent cable
infrastructure. You will need more than three years for that.]

The national satellite network now includes 12 communication
satellites operated by the state-owned Space Communication
organisation, said news agency Interfax. It added the organisation
will launch the first of its Ekspress-A satellites in 1999.

Useless fact: People who regularly start each
day eating a bowl of cold breakfast cereal tend to consume more
fibre and calcium -- but less fat -- than people who breakfast on
other foods.

DIGITAL

ATM
via Intelsat

Comsat World Systems announced that the world's first
commercial Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) satellite link is up and
running, extending the U.S. Internet backbone to several South
American countries.

The ATM satellite link, which according to Comsat -- the United
States' Intelsat singantory -- has service quality comparable to
fibre, will carry Internet traffic between Puerto Rico's Telefonica
Larga Distancia (TLD) and South America. [By the way: the
capabilities of fibre optic cables dwarf those of any satellite; but
not all countries are well-served by those cables.]

ATM has emerged as the networking protocol of choice for Internet
Service Providers, carriers and multinational corporations. Comsat's
new proprietary equipment and service make it possible for companies
to extend, efficiently and cost-effectively, their ATM networks
around the globe via satellite.

The ATM satellite link supports applications at speeds up to 34
Mbps outbound from Puerto Rico to South America. Traffic inbound to
Puerto Rico from South America will be supported at speeds up to 8
Mbps. TLD will access the Intelsat satellite located at 1 degree West
using Telecomunicaciones Ultramarinas de Puerto Rico's (Ultracom)
earth station facilities at Humacao in Puerto Rico.

ATM via Satellite is compatible with all major ATM network
components, and supports ATM links at information rates ranging from
fractional T1 to DS-3.

Useless fact: According to the U.S. Census
Bureau and U.S. Rowing Association, 15 percent of amateur rowers
earn more than US$100,000 a year.

CHANNELS

Go
West!

U.S. media group Discovery will invest about US$100 million
over four years in the BBC America channel it will launch soon with
Britain's BBC.

Discovery chairman John Hendricks told a news conference in London
that BBC America, due to launch on March 29, would initially be
transmitted via digital cable in selected U.S. markets and then move
to the more widely-available analogue cable platform. Hendricks
expect the channel to be available in 20-25 million U.S. households
within two year's time.

The deal obviously is one of the BBC's most ambitious efforts to
tap the commercial potential of its programming. No further details
were available at time of writing, but it was widely expected that
the companies would also announce a co-production funding deal and
the launch of two global channels -- "People and Arts" and
"Animal Planet." As part of their alliance, BBC Worldwide
and Discovery have already launched those channels in Spanish in
Latin America.

In a separate deal, the BBC was also expected to take control of
the company that markets two BBC television channels in Europe. BBC
Worldwide was set to buy the rest of European Channel Management,
which markets and distributes BBC World and BBC Prime channels in
Europe, from co-owners Pearson Plc and Cox Communications Inc.

Useless fact: When a snake is born with two
heads the heads fight each other for food.

RUPERTWATCH

by Dr Sarmaz

Rupert
in Italy

The head of News Corp., Keith Rupert Murdoch, has reportedly
met Sua Emittenza, Dottore Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. The two media
giants are in the closing stages of negotiations over a sale of
shares in the Italian television group Mediaset -- despite all
earlier statements to the contrary.

Talks over the sale by Berlusconi were "nearing the finishing
line", the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported. Berlusconi
controls Fininvest, which is the parent company of Mediaset. He has
consistently denied that he would sell Mediaset to News Corp., but
has acknowledged that his group was in touch with Murdoch over "an
international alliance."

The most likely outcome was that Murdoch would acquire slightly
less than 30 percent of Mediaset which would cost him some US$1.7
billion. Mediaset controls three private national television
channels, Canal 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4. The licenses expire in April
but Fininvest expects that the licences will be renewed.

However, Berlusconi (once prime minister) has to dispose of some
of his assets if he wants to play politician in future. Even a member
of parliament from his own right-wing party, Forza Italia, recently
proposed a bill to prevent any member of the government from owning a
daily newspaper or a television station.

Baseball
business

I have to admit that I am the kind of person who can't tell
baseball from basketball. [Not because it's sports... actually,
because it's U.S. sports.] Maybe that's why I didn't cover the story
of Keith Rupert Murdoch trying to buy a baseball team, the Los
Angeles Dodgers.

From what I glimpsed on the Internet today, the deal seems to have
been okayed even though KRM's arch rival, Ted Turner, had been
fighting to stop that deal.

Paul Gillingwater told Sat-ND that he had found a nice article on
all that, which also contains loads of quotes from the Mouth of the
South, Ted Turner. Have a look at it yourself.

Useless fact: The Soviet Sukhoi-34 is the first
strike fighter with a toilet in it.

ZE
ZHENG ZONE

by Grandpa Zheng

European Internet users yearn for
Net Nannies

Finally, here's proof that Europeans can be brainless morons
who long for their governments to tell them what to read on the
Internet.

Okay, the survey conducted by an independent information
technology and telecommunications analyst group called Ovum [Latin
for egg, I think] is hardly representative as only 400 European
consumers were asked for their opinion.

The result is nonetheless nothing but appalling. Over half of
those asked said they were concerned about the easy availability of
pornography and violent entertainment via the Web and believe that
Internet content should be regulated by an independent regulatory
agency.

Quite hypocritical, I think [how do they know about the "easy
availability of pornography and violent entertainment" anyway?],
and complete and utter idiocy anyway. Is there any agency that
regulates printed pornography or violence on TV anywhere in Europe?
Probably not. Instead, the barriers are set by national laws.

Concerned about your children? Well, I hope you keep your porn
mags or cassettes out of their reach. And besides, as sex and
especially gratuitous violence are readily available on TV: I hope
your kids don't have TV sets in their rooms. Same applies to
computers and the Internet. Period! Good heavens, all you idiots
shouldn't expect the government to educate your offspring, parents
and parents alone are responsible for that in the first place.

Concerned about illegal material on the Web? It is, and has always
been, illegal under national laws -- so there's no need for new laws
or new regulatory bodies. Maybe there's some need to train law
enforcement agencies to crack down on that, but that's a separate
issue.

Yes folks, as far as freedom of speech is concerned, Europeans
still got a lot to learn -- even from the U.S. of A.